Union pressure mounts on freight firms

Press, 27 May 1983, Page 3

Union pressure mounts on freight firms

Legislation outlawing increases in reimbursing payments had made it embarrassing for him and for industrial relations within the Alltrans freight company, said the firm’s managing director, Mr E. W. W. Prebble, from Auckland yesterday. He made the comment as the heat began to build up from workers in other freight-forwarding companies as they continued to strike in support of their claim that the allowance increases should be paid. Goods are building up at railway sidings in Christchurch because the freightforwarding workers in some companies have put a black ban on the containers and members of the National# Union of Railwaymen are observing the ban by not touching the waggons on which the containers are loaded. However, a spokesman for the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association said that it would take some time before manufacturers were affected by shortages of raw materials, because most had good stocks. The management of both Mogal Transportation and Freightways said that they had been told by union officials that Alltrans had agreed to pay the allowances, but Mr Prebble said that although he had agreed on May 19 to pay the increases the Government had since intervened “and that blocks that ability to pay.”

Mogal workers in Christchurch decided yesterday to continue their strike indefinitely, while workers at three Freightways subsidiary freight-forwarding depots will meet again on Monday. The Christchurch workers have been on strike since about 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Workers at the Auckland Mogal depot are also on strike for 24 hours over the same issue.

Mr Prebble, formerly of Christchurch, was appointed managing director of Alltrans in December last year, after a year in which Alltrans had suffered from a 10-week strike. He said that in the last year he had built up a good rapport with his workers, the basis of which was trust. “When .you make statements you have to stick to them. It’s not very palatable to have to go back on your word,” he said. Mr Prebble said that he had read the Government’s legislation suspending agreements on reimbursing allowance increases and he had taken legal advice. That advice indicated that he should not pay. The consequences of paying were heavy fines on a daily basis. Mr Prebble said that he had had many hours with his workers. They had been very understanding and had not gone on strike when told that they could not now be paid. “I am very happy with their attitude,” he said.

The deputy managing director of Mogal, Mr Roger Fisher, said from Auckland that the possibility of an indefinite strike was of major concern to the company.

“The situation is that legislation was passed by the Government which makes it illegal to pass on any increase, and we cannot pass on what was agreed. We will not take on the Government,” he said. If Mogal paid, other employers would come under pressure. “We are not prepared to

move,” Mr Fisher said. The general manager of Freightways, Mr Alan Richards, said from Auckland that Freightways had not agreed to pay any increase. He said that there was no room to move and Freightways would not. While workers’ wages were frozen, the company’s charges were also frozen. But the company realised that if inflation was to be beaten the freeze had to stay. “A bit of belt-tightening might see us all better off in the long run,” he said.